Cephalanthera rubra(L.) Rich. Red Helleborine

Cephalanthera rubra(L.) Rich. - Red Helleborine

Scientific Description:

Plants slender, 10−60 cm. Stem leafy, pubescent above. Leaves 3−8, spreading, lanceolate, to 12 cm. Spike usually lax, few-to many-flowered. Bracts lanceolate, lower leaf-like, often exceeding flowers. Flowers bright rose or rose-violet. Sepals spreading, oblong-lanceolate, to 20(−25) mm. Petals slightly shorter. Hypochile whitish with orange-yellow patch at base, lateral lobes oblique-oblong; epichile ovate-lanceolate, acute, to 15 mm, with c. 10 yellowish-brown longitudinal crests. Ovary ± pubescent.

 

Flowering time: May−July.

Habitat: Macchie, Quercus L. scrub, mixed and coniferous forest, mainly on calcareous and schistose soil, nr s.l. -2000 m.

 

Reference:
Renz J & Taubenheim G (1984). Cephalanthera rubra (L.) L. C. M. Richard, In: Davis PH (ed.), Flora of Turkey and the East Aegean Islands, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 8: 459.

Public Description:

Cephalanthera rubra, common name “red helleborine”, is found in Europe, North Africa and Southwest Asia. The red helleborine is a tuberous perennial herbaceous plant and produces attractive pink or purplish-pink flowers on a spike. It has only one stem and its leaves are dark green in colour and are very long and thin. The red helleborine blooms from May to July.

 

References:

Anonymous 1 (2016). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cephalanthera_rubra/, Accessed date: 03.03.2016.

Anonymous 2 (2016). http://www.brc.ac.uk/plantatlas/index.php?q=node/1772/,Accessed date: 03.03.2016.

Anonymous 3 (2016). http://www.arkive.org/red-helleborine/cephalanthera-rubra/,Accessed date: 03.03.2016.

Güler N (2012). Cephalanthera Rich., In: Güner, A., Aslan, S., Ekim, T., Vural, M. & Babaç, M.T. (eds.), Türkiye Bitkileri Listesi (Damarlı Bitkiler). Nezahat Gökyiğit Botanik Bahçesi ve Flora Araştırmaları Derneği Yayını. İstanbul, pp. 630–631.